I Don't Wanna Grow Up
by Senira
Summary: Jasmine has been yearning for one last adventure before she grows old, but when she gets her wish, will she want to go back?


The sky over the desert was troubled as Aladdin and Jasmine flew toward the bloated moon hovering forever just out of their reach. The two had been in the air for half an hour now, and the wind was getting more ferocious and the clouds had begun to seethe and grumble. Carpet flew at a brisk pace; getting around the powerful blasts of air had become increasingly difficult and attempting to move any slower would send its precious cargo spinning off to the sands below. Jasmine leaned against Aladdin and shivered. He smiled nervously and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, shifting his weight so that he would be more comfortable. She stared sadly up at him and Aladdin's expression changed to one of reassurance. She smiled at him and rested her hand on his chest, then began to speak. 

"I don't want it to end, Aladdin."

He raised his eyebrows, confused. 

"Don't want what to end?" He asked.

"This. All of this. We're getting too old to do it anymore. I don't want it to end…"  

He had a feeling he knew what she was talking about, but he pressed her further.

"You mean riding Carpet, or-"

"No! We can always ride Carpet!" She said, tearing herself from his gentle embrace. She balled her hands into fists and placed them in her lap, then stared down at the intricate patterns on the rug. She lowered her head slightly and sighed.

"I remember…a few years ago on a night like this, we'd be off into the sky, all by ourselves, going to who knows where and not really caring. We'd fly all night and spend the night wherever carpet landed. I suppose it might have been dangerous, but it was so much fun! But now…"

She trailed off and looked up at Aladdin. His face was grim, but she knew he understood. He once again offered her his shoulder, and this time she accepted the contact, sighing once again. 

"Why did it have to be like this, Aladdin? We used to be able to do whatever we wanted, _go_ wherever we wanted; no one could stop us. But what with you becoming sultan and us having kids and getting older on top of it- it's stopped."

Aladdin nodded. "It had to eventually. Everyone grows up Jasmine, it's just how it works."

"But why us? I was _happy_ with how things were going! I didn't _want_ to grow up! I wanted to stay seventeen _forever_!"

There was a roar in the sky above their heads and the clouds started boiling. The moon slipped behind cloud cover and its soothing glow was replaced by little streaks of light zipping through the more distant clouds. Carpet rapidly decreased altitude; this was definitely not flying weather, and if they didn't land soon things were going to get much, much worse. 

Once Carpet leveled out again Aladdin patted it gently on the back, indicating he was ready to land. Carpet gladly obeyed and headed toward the ground. 

"Jasmine," Aladdin said, speaking a little more loudly. "I know exactly what you mean. Things have really changed since we first met. I remember…when Anida was born…I was scared. Not just because I was going to be a father, but also because having a baby meant that everything was done. We'd never be able to go out and fight villains or go hunt treasures or anything that might put Anida at risk of losing one of us. It was a tough thing to do, to give it all up, but in the end it was worth it. We've got great kids and now that we've settled down we've made friends with all kinds of people we'd have never met if we kept zipping off to adventure every ten minutes. I miss it, yeah…but this is pretty good too."

Jasmine half smiled. "I suppose you're right…but still…to have one more adventure, to do something truly spectacular just one more time…"

She looked up into the murky sky and her gaze fell upon a spot that the clouds had neglected to cover. There were two stars there, no more, no less; they were both large and bright, but the one on the right shone with a strange intensity all its own. It was to this one her eyes were drawn, and to this one she extended a wistful prayer.

"I wish…for just one more adventure. That's all I ask, just one…"

Aladdin started to speak, but he never got that chance. A gust of wind greater than any of the other before it overtook them; Carpet struggled with the gale but it was evident that the wind was too strong. Aladdin gripped Carpet by the corners and tried with all his might to force it down, but to no avail. There was another blast of air and Aladdin, Jasmine and Carpet were shoved sideways and sent spiraling upwards into the storm.

"Aladdin!" Jasmine screamed. By this time the troubled sky had exploded into a flash flood, and pummeled the three of them with rain while threatening them with shining swords of heat and light.  Her hair obscured Jasmine's vision as it sagged down onto her forehead. She kept one hand in a death grip on carpet while the other desperately clawed through the air trying to find her husband. 

Aladdin was in a similar situation, but he felt Jasmine's hand brush his arm and quickly gripped it with his own.

"Jasmine, are you okay?" He shouted over the roaring winds.

"Aladdin, I can't hear you! Aladdin!" She was screaming at him, but her voice was lost in the tempest. They were being tossed around like toy boats in a tsunami; Carpet abandoned all hope of descending and now attempted to rise above the storm. He pushed desperately against the winds, trying to move with them, but it failed.  The storm seemed determined to dash them to pieces; blasts of wind assaulted them from all sides and tried to pry them from their perches atop the rug. All hope of communication was gone now; the wind sucked in any attempt to speak, and wind and beating rain was all that whistled past their ears.

Finally, the storm hit its mark. A powerful squall slammed into them from the side and Aladdin and Jasmine were airborne. Now that he was weightless, the winds devoured Carpet and spun him higher, higher until he was completely gone from sight. Aladdin and Jasmine screamed, their hearts racing, their hands flailing and tearing at the air, trying to stop, trying to find each other. They weren't quite falling; they had lost a lot of altitude, but now they were steadily rising in the winds, being tossed upward over and over again. Jasmine was sure she was going to die. The wind was sucking the air from her lungs and her body was being twisted and whipped like a doll's. She stared up at the roiling skies and made a prayer to Allah, then silently said goodbye to Aladdin and their friends. A cleft appeared in the sky directly above her and light poured from the crack, blinding her. She carefully opened her eyes and saw that the light was coming from the star she'd seen before, the one she'd wished on. 

_You wished for one more adventure, Jasmine_. She thought bitterly. _And we all know death is the greatest adventure of them all._

She drew one last breath before she lost consciousness, and Jasmine was shoved ever upwards toward the brilliant star, the second star to the right...

***********

A warm breeze brushed Aladdin's face, and his eyes cracked open then flew shut again. The sunlight was blinding him. He left his eyes shut and mentally felt down his body, wincing at every throbbing muscle and aching joint that he came across. He tried again to open his eyes and this time kept them there with some difficulty. 

For a moment he thought he was in the desert. But a quick look around showed him this was impossible, for there was too much vegetation for it to be a desert, not to mention the large lagoon to his left. He then thought it was an oasis, but an oasis wouldn't have a lagoon, so he dropped that theory aside as well. But if it wasn't an oasis, and it wasn't the desert, then where the heck was he?

He gradually forced himself up, gritting his teeth against the furious protests of his ill-treated body. As soon as he was up he felt dizzy, then sick, so he fell to his knees and scrambled over to the lagoon where he promptly emptied his stomach of all that had collected in it during his ordeal. Being ill awakened in him a desperate thirst; he moved over to another part of the lagoon and took deep gulps of the cool, clear water. Much to his surprise this water tasted unlike any other seawater he'd ever had; it was salty, yes, but there was something sweet about it too, like the taste of sugar dates or a ripe mango. He greedily sucked in more till his thirst was quenched. Feeling much better, he sat on the sand and stared out at the horizon, wondering what to do.

"Where am I? I know we got lost in the storm, but it couldn't have blown us out of the desert… and I've never seen a place like this anywhere before. I wonder if Jasmine….JASMINE!"

The thought of his wife sent him scrambling to his feet, ignoring the pain. He frantically scanned the beach and saw no one; he raised his hands and began to desperately call her name.

"Jasmine? JASMINE!" He shouted. He stumbled across the beach and into the bushes and trees that framed it. He called again, but there were no sounds of acknowledgement. The only noises were the chirping of birds and insects and the rustling of the leaves in the gentle breeze. Those and one sound Aladdin couldn't quite place; it filled the air around him and seemed to weave its way through the very forest itself to reach him; it was soft, barely perceptible, a cheery sound, almost like children singing… 

He strained his ears to hear the direction the sound was coming from, but it was too low to make an accurate choice. He finally threw his hands up in frustration and decided to just keep going straight. Perhaps the storm had dropped Jasmine in the forest and she was too far in to hear him. He shoved aside some large fern leaves and proceeded. 

The plants and shrubbery that littered the forest floor did nothing to hinder Aladdin's progress. If anything they moved aside to let him through, even pushed him along gently as he plowed through the woods. The song had stopped long ago, but Aladdin had already forgotten about it; he was too absorbed in his search for Jasmine to pay any attention to mysterious tunes. His calls for her revealed nothing, not even other people. If there were any other people living here, Aladdin thought, with all the noise he'd been making they'd have come running by now. 

After going on like this for a while, Aladdin began to have second thoughts about his rash decision to run out looking for Jasmine. He was completely lost now, and had no idea how to get back to the beach. The forest looked the same in all directions, and with all the twisting and weaving he'd had to do, he might have gone in a thousand different directions by now. He swiped a hand across his forehead and was alarmed when he saw the appendage come back smeared bloody. He grazed his fingers along his forehead and grimaced as they touched a cut just below his bangs. It was a superficial cut, which probably explained why its ache had been lost in the combined pain of the rest of him, but it was deep enough to bleed and it was definitely doing so. Aladdin sighed pushed the sleeve of his robe down so that it was over his wrist, then laid it on his forehead to sop up the blood. He made a face at the ugly condition of his robe, but decided finding Jasmine was more important than his appearance. He rolled back the dirty sleeve to his elbow and set off again, calling her name.

A few minutes after Aladdin left, there was a rustle in the bushes and suddenly a large, round, face burst out from between the leaves, topped by a large pair of rabbit's ears. The face peered anxiously in the direction Aladdin had gone, then tugged desperately on one long, brown ear.

"I've gotta go warn the others!" The creature said and ducked back down behind the bush, gone as quickly as it had come. 

*********

Tic toc tic toc 

"Where am I? What's going on?"

Tic toc tic toc 

"What's that noise? Aladdin, are you there? I can't see anything! I think I'm bleeding…Aladdin?"

Tic toc tic toc 

"Ugh…what's that noise? It's giving me a headache."

Jasmine was too beaten to raise her body, so she merely inclined her chin instead…

…And came face to face with a grinning, ticking, crocodile. 

Jasmine's scream echoed again and again throughout the marsh. The crocodile lunged; fueled with adrenaline the pain in Jasmine's body disappeared and she rolled to the side. The creature clumsily turned and went for her again with the same result. Jasmine tried to get to her feet, but the muddy shore was making it difficult and her feet kept sliding and sinking into the muck. Her crocodile friend was having no trouble, however, and used the mud to accelerate its attacks. Finally Jasmine made it to her feet and she plodded through the mud to the firmer ground a few yards away. The crocodile swung around and snaked after her; she shrieked and began to run blindly, swerving to dodge rocks, roots and other obstacles. Vines slapped her face and the slick moss of the forest bed impeded her progress as she almost lost her balance several times. The ticking was getting further away; either Jasmine was outrunning the enormous reptile or it had decided to find itself some less nimble quarry. She slowed down her pace slightly, and was instantly assailed by a wave of pain so great her flight was forced to stop within a few steps. She fell to her knees and leaned forward, gripping her side. She looked down at where her hands were clasped and made a sound halfway between a gasp and a curse. Her entire abdomen and the thigh of her left leg were bloody from a slash just to the left of her bellybutton. She scrunched up her face and examined the gash, noticing a chunk of wood peeking out from inside of it. 

"How long was I out?" She murmured, noticing the large amount of sticky blood. Some of it was already drying, so she must have been out a while. She touched the slash with two fingers and proceeded to painfully pry out the offending object. After it was out she held it up to her face and realized she must have hit a branch or something that broke off as she hit it. She tossed the twig into the bushes and yawned. She didn't know why, but she was awfully tired.

But this was not the right time or place to rest. Now only was she lost and injured, but Aladdin was missing. Not only that but there was a huge ticking crocodile lurking in the woods somewhere, and Jasmine didn't fancy becoming its dinner. It was the latter two of these issues that after a bit of mental preparation drove Jasmine to her feet, where she swayed and fell against a tree trunk to keep her balance. 

"First, I've got to get out of here, then I'll go look for Aladdin." Jasmine

Now Jasmine knew that the best way to be found was staying where you were, but running across the crocodile again worried her more. She clenched her jaw and with much effort forced herself to her feet. 

"I've got to look for Aladdin," She looked grimly at her side, and then added, "But I've got to get this cleaned up first."

She scanned the ground for something large enough to fit around her stomach. There were plenty of fern leaves, but she wasn't sure what they were from and didn't want to risk putting something poisonous onto her skin. Finally she decided to rip off a piece of her pants leg and use that instead. She grabbed a bit of fabric just above the ankle, and after a bit of coaxing was rewarded with a tearing sound. She pulled the fabric up in a spiral to about knee height, the tore down and broke off the piece from the rest of the leg. She wrapped the fabric around her side and tied the ends into a knot, then examined her work. 

"Not bad." She decided after tucking in a few stray pieces. The wound hadn't slowed its bleeding yet and quickly soaked the fabric, but there was no help for that now. Steeling herself, Jasmine pushed off the tree and gradually found her footing. She raised her head to scan the treetops and the forest around her; there was no sign of her husband or Carpet, who was also missing now that she thought about it. She didn't dare call out to them here with the crocodile in range, so she picked a direction and started plodding through the woods, praying her path wouldn't lead her in a circle. She walked for what seemed like hours, though the sun peeking through the trees didn't change position once during her wandering. She prayed to find someone, anyone, soon before she collapsed. Her body was incredibly sore; each step sent needles of pain up her shin, and blood had begun to seep through her makeshift bandage to form little drips at the edge of the fabric. 

As she continued, it seemed to her that the air was becoming fresher, saltier, and the clouds were more rough and bloated. _It's like the sky of the sea in Agrabah_, Jasmine noted. Though now that she thought about it, the river she'd been at an hour prior had to be connected to _something_, so an ocean or similar large body of water had to be within range. How big a range she wasn't sure, but she hoped it wasn't too far; thirst was one thing she had begrudgingly added to her list of current ailments. 

When Jasmine looked back on it, she couldn't decide what had caused her sudden collapse. It could have been the continuous loss of blood, a final rebellion from her aching frame or plain exhaustion working its magic over her fatigued body. All she knew was one moment she was staring at a sea of foliage and green, and the next the ground was rushing toward her while being consumed by waves of darkness.  She bounced as she hit the forest floor, and then fell still. 

Time passed through the forest, but no one stumbled upon the body of the princess. The sun began its inexorable slip into the horizon and the pale yellows and oranges of an approaching sunset gradually appeared. It was just as the sun had dipped behind the treetops above Jasmine's resting place that the tramping of feet and loud, raucous voices, broke the quiet of the woods.

"Hurry up, Smee! We've got to get back to the ship before dark; the men will be missing their captain by now!"

"Oh yes, yes of course sir. But it is a bit peculiar how they didn't send out a search party, isn't it sir? Perhaps its because they're so unhappy with you, hm? Ah, but yes, we must get back to the ship."

The captain shot a glare at Smee, but whether in anger at his bold statement or annoyance at his mere presence he didn't say. The captain turned back around and out of the corner of his eye spotted something quite out of place in the ocean of green. It was a bright robin's egg blue cloth, and attached to it was a body. Curiosity consumed him, then apprehension, for the only creatures in the woods that would wear such colors were either the redskins or the lost boys. A grin crept up behind his hooked mustache, and the man stalked toward the lifeless figure until he towered over it. His companion, lost in a stream of endless chatter, immediately bumped into him. 

"Watch where you're going, Smee!" The captain barked. 

"Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry, sir, I- hello, what's this?"

He maneuvered around the captain, who was glowering at the short, fat man while clenching and unclenching a fist. Smee leaned down and brushed a few locks of Jasmine's hair off her face.

"Well?" The captain demanded. "Is it a lost boy, or one of the redskins?"

"It's...It's a girl, cap'n!"

"A girl?" The sadistic grin on the taller man's face increased. "Is it Wendy?"

"N-no sir. This girl's far too dark to be Wendy; b'sides, she's got black hair and Wendy had red. All the same, she is a very lovely woman, yes, yes. I wonder if she has a boyfriend? It's been a while since I've met any nice young ladies; perhaps I could turn on the old Smee charm, eh? But no, cap'n, she's not Wendy. Too tan, too old, no, not Wendy."

"Well if it's not Wendy, then who is it?" The captain demanded.

"I don't _know _sir! But she looks badly injured. Perhaps we should take her back to the ship, hm?"

The captain snorted. "What good will that do us? She's just some dirty woman lying in the woods; she'll serve no purpose on the ship other than to amuse the men. Besides, she's half dead anyway. Let nature take its course." 

"Ah yes, but sir, what if she _is_ one of the lost boys, er, uh, a lost girl? Perhaps they're all playing another game and don't know she's been hurt. We can take her with us back the ship then tell Pan that we have one of his friends captive. He'll come swooping to the rescue and you'll have 'im right where you want 'im, cap'n!" 

The captain appeared to consider Smee for a moment, then reached up with his left hand and began to twirl the end of his mustache. Or at least, with what _should_ have been his left hand; for in its place was instead a sharp metal hook screwed into his wrist. 

"Hm…take her back to the ship, eh? I wonder…hey, that's it, I've got it!" He raised his hook in victory. "We'll take this wench back to the ship with us, hold her hostage and use her to lure Pan there! He'll come swooping to the rescue and I'll have him right where I want him!"

"Brilliant capt'n!" Smee cheered and hopped from foot to foot clapping his hands. 

"Good, that's been decided. Pick her up, Smee, and take her back to the ship."

"_Me _sir? Oh, but I'm not so strong sir, and she looks like a fairly heavy young lady-"

"DO IT SMEE, OR I'LL TIE YOU TO THE MAIN MAST AND FLAY YOUR HIDE, SKIN IT, AND USE IT AS COAT!"

"Yes, yes sir." Smee obediently scooped up the girl and with much effort swung her over his broad, rounded shoulder and the trio headed back to the ship.

********

 After a seemingly endless period of light, nighttime had swept over the land. Aladdin shivered, pulled his cape around his shoulders and hunched over a fire set in the middle of the clearing where he'd chosen to spend the night. He'd wandered all day and had found no people whatsoever in the woods, though he did catch a glimpse of a few animals. He'd finally decided to abandon his hope of finding civilization and just concentrate on finding Jasmine, but it was too dark to look for her anymore. So here he was, hungry, alone and hopelessly lost in a strange forest. 

Despite all this, Aladdin was glad he at least had a fire to keep him nice and cozy.  But even that brought him some worry, for while a fire was nice to cook and keep warm, it would inevitably attract just about every creature for miles around. Already moths and mosquitoes were plaguing him, and perhaps it was just the smoke but he was almost positive he'd seen eyes peeking at him through the smoke. A strong breeze swept through his campsite, twisting the flame and sending it sideways. There was a sound. Wind or feet, he didn't know. His hand dipped into a hidden pocket of his pants and closed around the hilt of a dagger. A rustle, a shift, a cough. Bark scraping bark? No. People. People were in the clearing.

The breeze dissipated. Aladdin stood, dagger in hand, darting his eyes around and into the wild shadows produced as the fire tried to readjust itself. 

An inhuman caw. Shouting, all around him, feet pounding. Attack!  

They came at him all at once, jumping onto his back, clawing at his skin, biting at his ankles. A swirl of brown, black, white, bear paws, claws, ear, fur, flesh. Animals? People? Demons? Aladdin slashed expertly at the assailants. Some dodged, and once or twice he heard the yelp of a creature that had either been hurt or very nearly so. They had dragged Aladdin away from the firelight, all he could make out were the endless swirls of colors and appendages. His dagger reared back; the point was aimed at what he guessed to be the midsection of his nearest attacker. Another creature tried to leap for his arm, but he twisted and kicked it away, turned back, knocked his previous target in the stomach and pinned it firmly with his foot. His dagger began its deadly descent, its impact the heart of its target. The creature let out a yell, a human yell, a child's yell. Aladdin's shock was enough to stop the blade from completing its dive, but it had additional help from the short metal blade that had stopped it inches from his trapped opponent. Suddenly, all the creatures stopped their assault and with a fit of gasps and giggles retreated back. Aladdin tossed them a brief glance then returned his attention to his new foe. 

Another gust of wind tossed the fire in their direction and a fluttering glow briefly illuminated the person's face. It turned out that he too was a child, no older than ten or eleven judging by the plumpness of his cheeks and the way his smug grin seemed to stretch ear to ear. The color of his eyes were still masked by shade, but their expression spoke of humor tinted black with warning. He fixed his gaze on Aladdin, seemingly observing him in the same way. The wind was gone again, the flame returned to its rightful place, and they were once again in shadows.

"Alright stranger. Do you wanna fight, or are you gonna come along quietly?"

Aladdin was still recovering from his previous shock at discovering his attackers were children. He lifted his foot off the child he was pinning and watched him scurry to join his companions. It took a moment for the other boy's words to register, but when they did he was stunned once again.

"Fight you…but…you're just…you're all a bunch of kids!"

"Darn right mister!" A voice piped from behind him. Aladdin started to glance at the speaker, but he sensed a shift in the position of the boy before him. He raised his dagger and twisted sideways just in time to avoid being disarmed. The grin on the boy's face increased, if that were at all possible, and he leapt backward and dodged Aladdin's counter thrust. He heard the angry whispers of the children behind him, but they were silenced with a wave from the boy.

"So you're gonna fight after all? Great!" The boy took a stance and pointed his dagger at Aladdin. 

"Ready?" He asked.

Aladdin started to take a stance as well, but caught himself in time. What was he doing? He was about to fight a ten year old!

"Kid, I don't want to hurt you." Aladdin said, lowering his dagger to illustrate the point. The boy lowered his in turn and eyed Aladdin suspiciously.

"Well if you weren't trying to hurt me, then why were you lookin' round our woods all day?"

"Wha-? _Your_ woods? You mean you own these woods?"

The boy thumped his chest. " A' course we do! All the wood around Hangman's tree is Lost Boys territory!"

"Lost boys?"

"Us, the lost boys!" The boy waved his hand to include the array of costumed children behind Aladdin. 

"Oh…uh, right." Aladdin said.

"So mister, what were you doing in our woods? If you wasn't lookin' for us, then why were you searching for something all day?"

They'd been following him all day? Aladdin had encountered child gangs when he lived in Agrabah, but this had to be the strangest on he'd ever met. Usually when a gang spotted its victim they'd corner and rob him as soon as possible; these kids had been spying on him the entire time! They were treating it like some sort of game! But even the most innocuous of children could turn on you when it suited them, and Aladdin knew better than to test these children's patience. 

"I was looking for my wife." He admitted. "We got caught in a storm and were blown apart by the wind. Next thing I knew I was lying alone on a beach."

The boy rubbed his chin and eyed Aladdin doubtfully. Aladdin pricked up his ears and listened to the children behind him, lest they should try and jump him at some signal from their leader. 

"Wife, huh? Say mister, this 'wife' thing- is it anything like a mother?"

"Well yes, some wives _are_ mothers, but-"

At the word "mother" a burst of giggles and excited whispers came from the children. Aladdin's face showed his bewilderment to the boy before him as he clasped his hands together and grinned. 

"Wow! A real live mother, here in Neverland! Did ya hear that Lost Boys?"

The children cheered and clapped their hands. "Say mister," One boy came forward and tugged on Aladdin's pants leg. "Is she real pretty?" 

"Is she old?" Asked another.

"Is she fat?"

"Can she tell stories?"

"Is she gonna be _our_ mommy?"

"Yeah, can she? It's been so long since we've had a real mommy…" 

The other boys agreed solemnly. Within the span of several seconds they'd gone from being chaotic hell spawn to cute, docile children. Aladdin felt pity welling in his heart, and even his most firmly rooted suspicions began to give way to it.

"So do you guys have any parents at all?" He asked gently.

"Who us? No way! We don't need anyone to tell us what to do!" The speaker was a tall, lanky boy wearing what appeared to be a fox costume.  

"Yeah, who needs bedtimes and bath times and all that stuff when there's so much fun stuff to do?" Another child agreed. It was difficult to pick them out individually in the darkness, as all Aladdin saw were occasional patches of fur or the tips of ears. If they were this peculiar at night he could only imagine what they looked like in the daytime. 

"But if you don't have parents, who takes care of you?"

"Peter does! And our mommy, when he brings us one." 

Having been an orphan himself, Aladdin was willing to accept this last statement. But what did they mean by "when he brings us one?" Obviously he was missing out on something. Yet he decided not to press the matter; between walking all day and his brief tussle with the children he had thoroughly exhausted himself.  Their leader- Peter, had they called him? – Seemed to catch on to this and made Aladdin an offer.

"Say mister, you wanna come spend the night at our place? There's plenty of room in the tree for you as long as you promise not to try and make us do chores or brush our teeth or stuff like that."

Aladdin considered this for a moment. Spend the night alone in a dark forest surrounded by who knows what or stationed in a tree with a bunch of unruly nine year olds? The latter was tempting, even though his experience with the children had been less than pleasant. His knowledge of human nature hadn't been so dulled by palace life that he trusted anyone he met now, but they _were_ just kids after all…

Perhaps it was something about their cheerful dispositions or the pleading gazes they tossed his way, but he finally conceded to their offer. The children cheered and suddenly thin, slightly callused fingers clasped his palm and begin to tug him toward the darkness. New panic seized him, but he realized it was only their leader leading him to their home. The boy smiled at him and with a free hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey, relax mister, we won't hurt ya! You're gonna love it at the tree house; we got a lot of food and berry juice, and the beds are all stuffed with leaves, real soft and comfy. And while we're there I can introduce you to Tinkerbell- oh, she'll love you! But hey, mister, I never did get your name."

Aladdin gave himself a moment to catch up with the boy's quick speech, then said, "My name's Aladdin."

"Aladdin, huh? Geez, that's a weird name."

"Yeah, well, my friends call me Al."

"Al? Hm…hey, I like that, Al! Well Al, welcome to Neverland. My name's Peter Pan, leader of the Lost Boys and the best crower on the whole island." 

To illustrate his last point he let out a loud caw, a perfect imitation of a crow's, and all the other Lost Boys joined him. Aladdin shook his head and sighed. Something told him he was about to have a very, _very_ strange adventure. 


End file.
